CHAPTER ELEVEN

The World of Infancy

THE chant of the second section celebrates the appearance of fish in the sea and forest growth on land under control of the generating agents Pouliuli and Powehiwehi. The word uliuli is applied to the color of deep ocean in comparison to the lighter shade of shallower waters near shore, wehiwehi to the shade under thick leafage where some light filters in; hence "Deep-profound-darkness" and "Darkness streaked-with-glimmers-of-light" as this next stage in the development of life on earth advances toward the light, or, as Pokini would put it, as the newborn infant begins to show consciousness of the world about him.

The Prologue introduces the birth of a wonder child in the shape of a "hilu fish" as the theme for the listing of sea life to follow. Two species of this fish, Anampses cuvier and Juli eydouxii, are among the most brilliant in coloring found in Hawaiian waters, hence the name hilu, "elegant." The lines make sense only when applied to a human child in babyhood. In old days the first solid food given a child was thought to influence its afterlife. The red-eyed kole fish would give the child a rosy tinge, the "sticking" gobey fish would cause good luck to "stick" to him, the hilu fish would insure good looks. A discreet form of compliment in praising a pretty infant, since open admiration was not only in bad taste but might bring bad luck, was to call him a hilu fish. "Aren't you a hilu fish! " (He hilu no paha oe!) or "What a pretty fish the hilu is! " (Ke hilu he i'a a no'i-no'i!) was the proper phrase. Similarly, the difficult second line may be

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referred to a lullaby that Kawena Pukui remembers her grandmother singing,

Toss, toss, hush

Ho'ole'ile'i, ho'onana

Hush my child.

Ho'onana ana i ku'u kama.

The early movements of an active youngster are, furthermore, exactly conveyed in the words "wrestler" and "pusher" also suggested by Kawena for the enigmatic line that follows. There comes next a passage explained by Pokini Robin son as applied to the freedom of a child in obeying the calls of nature. "Ta! Poho-mi-lua-mea! " cries an elder when the odor proclaims that a child has messed himself. The makeup of the word, from poholua for the hollow of the anus and mi for passing urine, is sufficient to indicate the relevance of the expression, and the lines that follow complete the incident.

The epilogue similarly plays between the underwater world, where swims the brilliantly colored fish, and the secluded valley, home of the gods in ancient times, where a chief's son was taken to be reared as a sacred child in order to preserve his high taboo rank as he grew to adolescence. In the sea world bright-colored opule fish play, "the sea is thick with them." Their persistent gulping and swallowing (monimoni) when at the surface links with the words kolomio and miomio for their disappearance under sea in a swift dive. From the "coral ridges" among which the little ones play, they "seek the dark currents" and slip away from land to the darkness that covers them.

To the symbolic sea world in which the child plays in infancy, allusion to the mythical Pimoe, Polikua, and Paliuli lend a playful note of mystery as well as of learning. They satisfy an imperative law of poetic composition common to Hawaiian as to early Greek song masters, where witness the reproach leveled at Pindar by his lady critic for omitting such allusions from his first eulogistic verses and her later sharp warning, upon his attempting to correct this fault, "to

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sow with the hand, not with the bag." Pimoe is a shape-shifting being of uncertain sex, for whom in her feminine form legendary heroes go fishing. Some call her "caretaker" of Kane's-hidden-island, a land "beyond the horizon." Polikua, from poli, "concave," and kua, "back," is the dip at the horizon beyond which the eye cannot reach, also personified in the playful saying of one who has been in the land of dreams that he has been "flirting with Polikua.

Paliuli names an ever verdant land of the gods where abundant food grows without labor.[1] The name is given to fertile spots in deep mountain valleys where in old days children of high chiefs were taken to be reared. These spots seem to be recognized as former homes of the gods by the abundance of wild growth, perhaps of wild fruits such as banana and breadfruit. Kupihea named one such spot in the mountains back of the Kamehameha girls' school on Oahu, another near Nahiku on Maui in the Keanae region, one above Halawa on Molokai where Kamehameha is said to have been brought up, and one on Lanai at Kumoku. Some say that each district had its Paliuli. Perhaps the name was given to whatever secluded spot was chosen in the district for the rearing of taboo chiefs from infancy without any form of labor on their own part. The poet here seems to compare the coral ridges of the sea where fishes play with the green heights where the little human "hilu fish" passes his childhood. Since the material world is linked so closely in Hawaiian thought with the psychical, it may be that the underwater world where the hilu fish moves is to be under stood as symbol of the infant's first contact with the world of fluctuating realities into which he is so early plunged.

125. A wrestler, a pusher, [?]
Dweller in the land of Poho-mi-luamea
The sacred scent from the gourd stem proclaims [itself]
The stench breaks forth in the time of infancy
He is doubtful and stands swelling
130. He crooks himself and straddles
The seven waters just float
Born is the child of the hilu fish and swims
The hilu fish rests with spreading tail-fin
A child of renown for Po-uliuli
135. A little one for Po-wehiwehi
Po-uliuli the male
Po-wehiwehi the female
Born is the l'a [fish], born the Nai'a [porpoise] in the sea there swimming
Born is the Mano [shark], born the Moano [goatfish] in the sea there swimming
140. Born is the Mau, born the Maumau in the sea there swimming
Born is the Nana, born the Mana fish in the sea there swimming
Born is the Nake, born the Make in the sea there swimming
Born is the Napa, born the Nala in the sea there swimming
Born is the Pala, born the Kala [sturgeon ?] in the sea there swimming
145. Born is the Paka eel, born is the Papa [crab] in die sea there swimming
Born is the Kalakala, born the Huluhulu [sea slug] in the sea there swimming
Born is the Halahala, born the Palapala in the sea there swimming
Born is the Pe'a [octopus], born is the Lupe [sting ray] in the sea there swimming
Born is the Ao, born is the 'Awa [milkfish] in the sea there swimming
150. Born is the Aku [bonito], born the Ahi [albacore] in the sea there swimming
Born is the Opelu [mackerel], born the Akule fish in the sea there swimming
Born is the 'Ama'ama [mullet], born the 'Anae [adult mullet] in the sea there swimming

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Born is the Ehu, born the Nehu fish. in the sea there swimming
Born is the 'Ino, born the 'Ao'ao in the sea there swimming
155. Born is the 'Ono fish, born the Omo in the sea there swimming
Born is the Pahau, born is the Lauhau in the sea there swimming
Born is the Moi [threadfin], born the Lo'ilo'i in the sea there swimming
Born is the Mao, born is the Maomao in the sea there swimming
Born is the Kaku, born the A'ua'u in the sea there swimming
160. Born is the Kupou, born the Kupouposu in the sea there swimming
Born is the Weke [mackerel ? ], born the Lele in the sea there swimming
Born is the Palani [sturgeon], born the Nukumoni [cavalla] in the sea there swimming
Born is the Ulua fish, born the Hahalua [devilfish] in the sea there swimming
Born is the 'Ao'aonui born the Paku'iku'i fish in the sea there swimming
165. Born is the Ma'i'i'i fish, born the Ala'ihi fish in the sea there swimming
Born is the 'O'o, born the 'Akilolo fish in the sea there swimming
Born is man for the narrow stream, the woman for the broad stream
Born is the Nenue [pickerel] living im the sea
Guarded by the Lauhue [gourd plant] living on land

Refrain

172. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Pahaha [young mullet] living in the sea
Guarded by the Puhala [pandanus] living on land

Refrain

178. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Pahau living in the sea
Guarded by the Hau tree [hibiscus] living on land

Refrain

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184. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the He'e [squid] living in the sea
Guarded by the Walahe'e [shrub] living on land

Refrain

190. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the 'O'opu [gobey fish] living in the sea
Guarded by the 'O'opu [fish] living in fresh water

Refrain

196. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Kauila eel living in the sea
Guarded by the Kauila tree living on land

Refrain

202. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Umaumalei eel living in the sea
Guarded by the 'Ulei tree living on land

Refrain

208. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Paku'iku'i fish living in the sea
Guarded by the Kukui tree [candlenut] living on land

Refrain

214. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Laumilo eel living in the sea
Guarded by the Milo tree living on land

Refrain

220. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Kupoupou fish living in the sea
Guarded by the Kou tree living on land

Refrain

226. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Hauliuli [snake mackerel] living in the sea
Guarded by the Uhi yam living on land

Refrain

232. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Weke [mackerel] living in the sea
Guarded by the Wauke plant living on land

Refrain

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238. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the 'A'awa. fish living in the sea
Guarded by the 'Awa plant living on land

Refrain

244. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Ulae [lizard fish] living in the sea
Guarded by the Mokae rush living on land

Refrain

250. Man for the narrow stream, woman for the broad stream
Born is the Palaoa [walrus] living in the sea [?]
Guarded by the Aoa [sandalwood] living on land

Refrain

256. The train of walruses passing by [?]
Milling about in the depths of the sea
The long lines of opule fish
The sea is thick with them
260. Crabs and hardshelled creatures
[They] go swallowing on the way
Rising and diving under swiftly and silently
Pimoe lurks behind the horizon
On the long waves, the crested waves
265. Innumerable the coral ridges
Low, heaped-up, jagged
The little ones seek the dark places
Very dark is the ocean and obscure
A sea of coral like the green heights of Paliuli
270. The land disappears into them
Covered by the darkness of night
Still it is night